This was Nintendo's answer to the pacmania mazelike craze.
That's right, the 'soulslike' phenomenon is hardly a new thing.

a lot of people just view this as a mid entry to that pile. but honestly, I love it.

I find it super satisfying to play, and can easily jump into it anytime I want an arcadey game to play for 5 minutes.

It genuinely innovates on the mazelike formula and can be decently challenging without going overboard like 90% of games from its era.